Ryan Joseph Palmer
Obituaries
Vail Daily page A9 - July 22, 2013
Aspen Climbing Victim Identified.
ASPEN— The body of the climber recovered Saturday afternoon on Capitol Peak, a 14er west of Aspen, was identified Sunday as 35-year-old Ryan Joseph Palmer of Vail. The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office was waiting until the family was reached to release his name to the public.
Palmer was found at an elevation of about 12,300 feet on the north face of the mountain, said the Sheriff’s Office in a statement. According to the friends he went climbing with, he attempted to climb down the exposed north face and not take the usual route across the “knife edge” back down the mountain. At 7:15 p.m. Palmer had still not arrived at camp. His friends reported him missing and Mountain Rescue Aspen deployed 11 volunteer members, and, with the aid of Bruce Gordon of Eco Flight from Aspen, located Palmer on the snowfield below the north face of the mountain. Palmer fell approximately 200 to 300 feet according to the Sheriff’s Office, and his exact cause of death remains undeclared. Funeral arrangements for Palmer have yet to be announced.
Vail Daily page A4 - July 27, 2013
VAIL — Ryan Palmer’s family says he’s “shredding the hills of heaven” as they attend funeral services for the West Vail snowboarder today in Erie, Pa.
Palmer, 35, fell to his death while hiking the north face of Capitol Peak in Pitkin County on July 19.
Palmer’s family said they intend to spread his ashes here in Vail on Dec. 25, Palmer’s birthday, as a celebration of life for the man they describe as having an extraordinary love of the mountains.
“You could never get him to leave Colorado because he loved it so much,” said Kim Madara, Palmer’s sister.
The last time Palmer’s family gathered together was October in his home state of Pennsylvania.
“He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to travel to Erie, but I begged him to make it happen and he made it happen,” Madara said.
Palmer was very close with Madara and their sister Kristin, with about four years spanning between them.
Devastated by their loss, Kristin said she is taking comfort in the fact Ryan died doing what he loved.
“He loved hiking and loved the outdoors,” she said.
Madara hiked to Booth Falls with Palmer last year on a visit to Vail, a vacation she says she’ll always remember as the best she’s ever had.
“It was great seeing him in his element,” she said. “He had an amazing group of friends.”
Among those friends was Palmer’s roommate, Aaron Page, who met Palmer here in Vail.
“He was the nicest guy to all of his friends,” Page said.
Michael Dropcho lived with Palmer in Vail and had been friends with him since high school.
“Here’s the thing about Ryan — he was a super-smart guy, and was awesome with computers and stuff; that’s what got him to Vail in the first place,” Dropcho said. “Very quickly though, he realized that he didn’t love that, and having tech jobs didn’t allow him to ride and hike and bike when he wanted to. So he got serving jobs just so he could do what he loved. He literally worked to live, instead of living to work.”
Page said in his years living with Palmer, he didn’t see him sleep much.
“It didn’t matter how tired he was, he was always up two hours before me wanting to get on the mountain,” Page said.
Local snowboarder Dave Pleshaw said Palmer was a guy you’d see at night after work, as well as the morning.
“I used to see him out after work when he worked at Sweet Basil, and then I’d see him up early in the morning wanting to shred,” Pleshaw said.
Pleshaw is among the officials responsible for administering members into the Ravinos crew of local snowboarders, and he said after seeing Palmer repeatedly attempt to land a backflip, not quite stomp it and continue trying, the group intends to award Palmer with his Ravinos colors posthumously at his celebration of life Dec. 25.
“I didn’t know a whole lot about him, but I knew he was dedicated to snowboarding,” Pleshaw said.
Staff Writer John LaConte can be reached at 970-748-2988 or jlaconte@vail daily.com.
Vail Daily page A2 - January 4, 2014
Family, friends remember Ryan Palmer, who died while hiking fourteener, by John LaConte.
VAIL — Friends and family members of the late Ryan Palmer gathered on Eagle’s Nest Ridge this past week to celebrate the local resident’s life and spread his ashes.
Palmer was born on Christmas Day in 1977; on July 19 he fell to his death while hiking Capitol Peak in Pitkin County.
Palmer’s mother and step-father, along with his sisters and brother-in-law were visiting from North Carolina and Pennsylvania to attend the celebration, which they scheduled for Palmer 36th birthday. But travel complications nearly prevented the celebration, as the family found themselves stranded in Newark on the way here.
“That’s just Ryan messing with us,” the family said of the travel delays
At about 4 p.m., Palmer’s family spread his ashes over the groomed surface of upper Simba run in Vail, a tribute they say he would have found fitting.
“I know you loved these mountains,” Palmer’s mother, Rosemary Guarino, said through tears as she dispersed handfuls of ashes onto the snowy surface.
‘BROTHER IN SPIRIT’
Joining Palmer’s family and friends was Dan Palmer, of Fort Collins, a man who never met Ryan Palmer and has no relation to the Vail hiker despite having same last name, yet describes himself as Palmer’s “brother in spirit.”
Six weeks after Ryan Palmer suffered his tragic mishap on Capitol Peak, Dan Palmer found himself in the same situation.
After crossing the fearsome “knife ridge” en route to the top of 14,130-foot Capitol Peak, Ryan Palmer and Dan Palmer both decided not to turn around and cross it again on their way back down.
For Ryan Palmer, the decision would prove fatal.
For Dan Palmer, the hindsight gleaned from Ryan Palmer’s experience would save his life.
“I had heard about Ryan. A month before I went out there I read the clip in the paper about him,” Dan Palmer said on Wednesday. “And then I got out there, I knew not to and yet I found myself in the same situation anyway. How or why, I don’t have an answer for that.”
Palmer says he has experienced a few moments of what he calls “synchronicity” in his life, and that was one of them.
“It was the most frightening synchronicity I have ever experienced,” he said.
Armed with the knowledge of what happened to the man who shared his name, Dan Palmer made a call to mountain rescue, and later a helicopter came and saved him. He says in the days that have followed, he’s been thinking a lot about Ryan Palmer.
“I went through a divorce seven years ago and my life has been pretty isolated in the last few years, I’ve lived a life of solitude. My brother also died recently and I don’t have a lot of people, I didn’t have anyone to be with today (on Christmas Day), so the fact that his birthday is on Christmas feels like a gift to me. When the family contacted me and asked me to be here, I was very touched.”
BIRTHDAY Surprise
Ryan Palmer’s friends spent the days skiing and snowboarding before attending the celebration of life.
“We worked together, and we had the same days off, so we always rode together for about four years or so,” Ahmad Almadhoun said. “He was out there today with us.”
The group sang happy birthday to Palmer, shared a few stories and some tears.
Friends carried with them some of Palmer’s effects; his friend Carl Thompson wore blue in honor of the bluebird Colorado days Palmer so loved, and friend and former coworker Kayla Wittich wore a flannel shirt that used to belong to Palmer.
In another moment described by Dan Palmer as synchronicity, Palmer’s friend Courtney Hopkins experienced some pass confusion trying to load the Eagle Bahn Gondola to attend the celebration. Hopkins carries Palmer’s ski pass with her, and when the liftie attempted to scan her pass, it picked up Palmer’s instead, causing the gun to play the Beatles’ song “Birthday” as is the custom at Vail when a guest’s season pass is scanned on his or her birthday.
“Everybody started laughing and crying,” Wittich said. “It was awesome.”
